Moray Council's £2.5m dredging vessel MV Selkie recorded just 32 working days last year

Moray Council’s £2.5 million dredging vessel, the MV Selkie, required 91 maintenance days and had only 32 working days in the financial year 2024-25.

The number of working days in that year was the lowest since records began in 2020.

The figures are detailed in a report due to be put before the Harbours Sub Committee on Wednesday.

Dredging is a vital part of a working harbour’s maintenance and upkeep. The process removes access sand and debris to allow ships to access the harbour.

However, a sea of maintenance issues has battered the Selkie over the years, causing the multimillion-pound ship to spend most of its time tied to the pier.

The report mentioned that the excavator on the Selkie is “nearing its end of life” and needed to be replaced, with a Moray Council spokesperson confirming that the works are now underway.

In 2023, Moray Council had to shell out £300,000 on a Danish boat to dredge both Buckie and Burghead Harbours due to the Selkie not being in order.

A change of maintenance strategy was adopted from July of this year, which sees components replaced prior to failure rather than after, which has “significantly reduced maintainence down-time”, the spokesperson said.

As a result, the number of working days so far this year has already exceeded last year’s total.

Although it is not the ship’s only issue, “staffing of the workboat remains very tight”, according to the report, which has been a recurring challenge for the Selkie.

The vessel was built in 2016 to clean out harbours along the Moray coast in Buckie, Burghead, Hopeman, Findochty, Portnockie and Cullen.

However, the tonnage removed by the vessel in recent years has dropped by nearly half from 14,120 to just 8472 in 2023/24.

But in just the first five months of this year, the figure of 9460 has already topped the last two years and is expected to return to previous levels by the end of the year, according to a council spokesperson.

Dredging is yet to take place this year at both Cullen and Hopeman. This has been attributed to “requiring alternative methods” due to their current licence.

“A different marine licence is needed for Hopeman and Cullen harbours as the type of dredging works will be different,” the spokesperson said.

“Hopeman is being prioritised and the license will be which is being obtained as soon as possible.”

The council also confirmed that, at the start of the financial year, dredging at Burghead Harbour had been impacted by a “significant delay in receiving a replacement part”.

While this reduced the time available, the spokesperson said: “Dredging has now restarted in Burghead.”